Rainbow's End 🎫

Yesterday the year eights went to Rainbow's End for Y8 graduation, we were given other choices like paintball but decided to stick with Rainbow's End and I'd say we chose the right thing. 

Our first ride was the stratosfear, at first it wasn't that bad until we were upside down and starting swinging faster and faster. On the fear fall Limiteti, Kotipi and I were in the middle of praying when "BOOM" it dropped....We screamed our lungs off and acted like nothing happened when we got off. I was excited to go on the invader but my plan for that ride got cancelled since it wasn't open. The two most enjoyable rides we went on probably have to be the scorpion karts and power surge, power surge kept twisting and turning while scorpion karts had me feeling like I was the best driver in the world. 🏎️

Overall it was a great day and I'm ready for our last trip on Friday before I leave for college. 😁

New Teacher !!!

Recently our teacher went on leave for the rest of the year, so we were given another to substitute in his place. She has taught quite a few times here at our school, but hasn't been permanent since last year before she had an accident. This is her!

Mrs. Mitchell (our new teacher) has helped us to work on the areas we are struggling in and reflect to see what we can do better, she is funny at times and will reward us once in a while when we work hard. 

Sign Language Week

This week we are celebrating sign language. This event was initially supposed to be around the beginning of May but changed so that it would be scheduled around the same time America would celebrate in their country. This week helps to spread awareness for all the deaf people in our country, also it's promoting the language. 

NZSL is one of the three official languages we have in New Zealand. More than 2,000 kiwi's around the country use sign language daily to communicate with a deaf family member or friend.

Week #3 Of Tech

This week I made my vision of a cross come to life. From planning, to cutting, to creating the actual piece, I was slowly becoming closer to the end. In only the time of 3 weeks I was almost finished with my pewter pendent.

I had to draw my design onto a small piece of wood and use a professional woodcutter to cut the mold out. I could do it perfectly so Mr Grundy had to clean up some of the sides. I was using my hand to guide the wood piece but it was hard to focus because my hands were moving and I was worried.

Once I finally got my pewter metal out the mold I had to file the edges and make them as smooth as I can, next week I'll start sanding and hopefully if I'm quick enough I can make another one.

Turbo Touch

This afternoon Room 1 & 7 had another turbo touch lesson. Coach Chris first went over the rules just incase we forgot about them during lockdown. We then split into three teams and headed straight into our game football touch.

In football touch you have to try and tap the opposing team with the ball, except if you do have the ball you can't move. The game really made us focus on working together and thinking smart. How could we touch them? How do I not get touched?

I was definitely puffed out after going up against the green team because everybody in their team only went after me. At first I was doing good until I got tired and just let them touch me. It felt like a full on workout just running around.

Delaying Elections

It has been discussed that the elections have been rescheduled 4 weeks back. This decision was made because Jacinda's attention is  dealing with COVID-19.

This has only been announced because people kept questioning her about the elections and she needed to clear it up. She didn't make this choice herself but talked to all the other parties, everyone else  agreed that it should be pushed back so when people vote they can safely.

Lockdown #2

Having to go back into lockdown for the second time this year isn't really fun, but I fully understand that it's for our safety. As a country if we would like to go back to when we were clear of the disease disappeared, you should get tested if you show any symptoms of corona and immediately quarantine yourself. 

It truly is sad to see lives being taken away because of the Coronavirus, so the best thing we can do is keep social distancing and always wash your hands! Stay safe and make sure to protect yourself :)

Volleyball 2020!!!

Yesterday some students went and represented our school in volleyball. Our tournament was held inside the Barfoot & Thompson Stadium at Selwyn College. The fact that we won more games than we lost without having any reserves, I'm proud of the year 7 & and 8's.

Our volleyball team manager was Sebastian's mum. She would help us during our break to practice on what needed to get better and always encourage us. I really enjoy playing volley because I get to use different skills and I forget about the things I'm worried about.

Grow Green

Recently we went back to tech, instead of working with sugar this time our experiment had to do with plants specifically leaves. We talked about the structure of a leaf, the ones we are able to eat and how they grow. 

For our experiment we each used different leaves we could find outside our classroom and then boiled them in a tube of alcohol to see the colour drain out! From one tiny leaf there was definitely a lot more pigment than I would have expected. Some of us even got the chance to find out the meaning of words like photosynthesis!

Working With Sugar

For this weeks lesson we were working with sugar, talking about the different types and getting the chance to experiment with some coke.

Apparently, we are only supposed to be consuming 5 to 6 grams of sugar but instead we decide to have more sugar and end up having about 96 grams per day. Too much sugar can give you type 2 diabetes! Type two diabetes is when you have to get insulin shots to keep your blood sugar normal. Type one is when it comes from your genes. 

During the experiment we boiled the coke in a beaker, around 15 minutes after the coke evaporated we could see the amount of sugar that we have in one cup of coke.

Alert System For White Island

A senior studying at the University of Auckland is one of some scientists who came up with this new alert system. This system was designed for White Island's volcano, only because in the last decade it has erupted numerous times and has caused major damages. About 16 hours before the volcano erupts a signal will be sent to warn everybody. Now scientists are looking to get the same system installed in Ruapehu and Tongariro.

Personally I think that installing a system to notify you when an eruption will happen is really helpful, because in that period of time citizens have hours to leave the grounds and get to a safe destination.

War In Waihi

My reading group Apples read an article called "War in Waihi". The article was about the Martha Mine and the bad things that happened. 

The workers suggested since they couldn't work they wanted to go on strike, they were tired of not getting enough money. Months and months went until the new government decided to take action. Some people of the town agreed, the men work hard yet they barely get paid enough. 

Around September 1912 the war slowly started to begin, over sixty strikers were taken to prison and police would always be looking around on the streets. Then on a random day a group with police starting shooting and some men got hurt. 

Water Crisis

Since it's been raining quite a lot this week most people in New Zealand think they'll be allowed to use their garden hoses very soon, the problem is they still don't realize that we are on a water shortage. We are thankful that rain has started pouring down but it's not enough to cover all the lakes and rivers.

Right now the lakes are less than 50% full. They should be around 90 percent full near the start of November before summer begins. If rain doesn't fall more often we could be looking at a dry spring. That means all the flowers and things that usually blossom in spring probably won't this year because they could die from dryness.

PLASTIC !!

Our first topic for science was plastic, we discussed what single use, recycling and reusable plastic was. Single plastic is when you can only use it once, recycling is taking something and making another thing out of it and reusable plastic is just being able to store things in it continuously.

Each of us received our own science project book, in our books we write down things from our class and have to make sure we keep it up to date. Making sure we don't lose it is also important because it is our responsibility! Mrs. Sharma made us watch a video about plastic and how it's travelling to our waters, some people even learnt a new word - Biodegradable. Biodegradable is a type of plastic that can be decomposed meaning it can break down into the soil and gives it nutrients.

Back At School !!

Coming back to school in the middle of the term feels quite different. Having to wake up early has been difficult since I'm still not used to the routine. Usually I would have extra time to get in a few more minutes of sleep, but now I actually have to wake up on time!

Being at school is weird now, only because there isn't that many students around. My class so far has 4-5 people everyday. To top it off we have separate areas to play in, so I can't really talk to my other friends from the other intermediate class. I'm not used to being here at school, probably in a week or two it'll begin to feel normal again. Other than that school is fine, we still work hard, get things done and it's actually relaxing to find out you completed most of your work. Time really does fly by when you are focused!!

Science 🔮

Today we had our first lesson of science for tech basically an introduction, unfortunately we couldn't do it in person but at least we still got to have a class. We talked about 3 different areas of science (chemistry, biology & physics). Our teacher Mrs. Sharma made us watch a video about a lady named Alex Dempsey, she is a coral reef ecologist. An ecologist is someone who studies about the environment as well as people and animals!🐬

I am looking forward to being in science for the next few weeks, to learn something new and try out experiments and things like that. Mrs. Sharma is a good teacher so I'm positive I'll enjoy learning in science class!! I can't wait to start experimenting with a bunch of random things.😁

Yummy Nachos !!

Since we are still inside our houses my siblings and I decided to make something together, we made nachos. We just had to give a list for our mum to get the things that were missing. It took her sometime but it was all worth it.

After everything was prepared we had to resemble and put the cheese on, next time I suggest we should leave the chips on the side so it doesn't get soggy. Overall, it was delightful and honestly not that difficult to make!

New Zealand First Online Market 👍

Our country has officially opened the first online supermarket, this is all for the purpose of the coronavirus. The new online countdown opened in Penrose, Auckland.

Since everybody is in quarantine it is being estimated that there will be at least  7,500 orders a week just from our Auckland region. They will be employing 200 people and including 106 new jobs! The online countdown will be open 24/7, only because so many people need food during this lockdown.

This is a great opportunity for everyone because now people won't be in packed stores, which can spread the virus even faster.

Crocodiles In New Zealand Zoo's

There is a rule that they will be allowing more crocodiles at the Zoo's all over Aotearoa.

Under this rule, crocodiles and their eggs will be imported from countries in Asia and the Pacific. Currently our country is only receiving crocodiles from Australia. They will be allowing a bigger range of their species too! 

The animals and eggs have to be raised captive first, meaning that they want the crocodiles  being kept in for a while. They are doing this just so it doesn't end up attacking the zookeepers. Just like humans, they will have to be held in isolation first for 30 days and be disease free before being imported to our country. 

Stuffed Egg 🍳

Today our dish was to make a stuffed egg. It was consisted of eggs, cucumber, tomato, lettuce and some unsweetened yoghurt. The eggs had to be made hard boiled and the yolk was used in the stuffing. We got the opportunity to add a garlic and herb or smokey barbeque spice.

I personally struggled when it came to peeling of the egg shells because I was afraid that I would mess up. When it came to the cucumber I was was quite confident because I am experienced with using a knife. The presentation looked spectacular but the taste wasn't as good as I expected.